Dave and I took a 2-day ferry trip to St. Petersburg in November. It was the exact same idea as the ferry trip I took to Tallin last November, if you recall reading that post. Nonetheless, our boat left on a Monday evening, arrived to the port in St. Petersburg on Tuesday morning, and on Tuesday evening we set back off for Helsinki. Wednesday morning we were back on land and headed home. It was a quick trip, but well worth it. I have been itching to take a ferry trip to St. Petersburg since moving to Finland last year, and thankfully I squeezed it in before moving to Spain.
So in typical fashion, the ferry trip was an excuse for most of the passengers to drink copious amounts, sing their best/worst ballads at karaoke, and then dance at the dingy discotheque. I think it's hilarious to watch the performances at karaoke, so Dave and I witnessed a few atrocious renditions of songs, which we'd never even heard of before, before calling it a night.
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| Decorations in the ferry bar |
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| We figured we'd at least indulge in the 2 for 1 bloody marys |
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| Watching the karaoke, and wishing my picture wasn't being taken. |
So on Tuesday when we arrived in St. Petersburg our plan was to wander as much of the streets as we could before having to get back onboard. First, we were forced to take a shuttle into the city from the harbor, so we made the most of that and let it drop us off right in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral. From here, we made a loop around the city with the Peter and Paul Fortress being in the middle of our walk. We saw all kinds of gorgeous buildings, Dave practiced reading all of the Russian signs he possibly could, and we checked out quite a few second hand shops on the hunt for children's books so Dave could keep practicing. In the end it was a really good day, with temperatures that were still bearable, and despite not having enough time in the city, we enjoyed our day exploring St. Petersburg very much. My favorite thing that we saw was the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, mostly because I'm convinced that it looks like a Willy Wonka factory, but anyways the pictures will tell the rest of the story of our trip.
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| The world's worst picture of me and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. |
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| Willy Wonka lives in the top spire. |
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| He hates when I try to take his picture, can you tell? |
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| I don't want my picture taken either! |
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| Ship across the way from the Peter and Paul Fortress. |
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| The pedestrian crossing signs look as if the dude has thrown out his back. |
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| He gave in and gave me this awkward pose of him with the Peter and Paul Cathedral. |
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| Thumbs up for the cathedral. |
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| This was how much of the Hermitage we saw... |
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| And then we stumbled upon a wedding that we felt inclined to take sneaky pictures of. |
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| In our attempt to find food we accidentally stumbled upon an ultra hip place where I mistakenly ordered 15 euro potatoes with steak, whoops! At least the tea was good. |
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| But the cool cat family tree on the wall of the cafe was the redeeming feature in the debacle. |
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| And back to St. Isaac's at the end of the day. |
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| I <3 Russia! |
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| Oh and naturally we indulged in the ridiculously cheap wine and beer available in the supermarket with the rest of our rubles for the ferry ride home. |
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| And now my passport has rad stamps in cyrillic. |
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| The first thing you see when you get off the ferry in Helsinki, the home of Europe's largest selection of electronics, which are probably, always the cheapest... |
Since getting back to Helsinki from this little mini holiday, life has been quite crazy. Getting my life ready to head home for 6 weeks, preparing for my semester in Spain, and saying goodbye to Dave for now. Between schoolwork and restaurant work, we all managed to get together for our attempt at Thanksgiving, and that was good fun. But for now it's back home for 6 weeks, and I can't wait! I promise to do an update about my time at home at some point in January, but happy holidays for now! xx
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| Happy Thankskipping! |
